DESCRIPTION

By default, variables are private to each thread, and each newly created thread gets a private copy of each existing variable. This module allows you to share variables across different threads (and pseudoforks on Win32). It is used together with the threads module.

EXPORT

share, lock, cond_wait, cond_signal, cond_broadcast

Note that if this module is imported when threads has not yet been loaded, then these functions all become no-ops. This makes it possible to write modules that will work in both threaded and non-threaded environments.

FUNCTIONS

share VARIABLE

share takes a value and marks it as shared. You can share a scalar, array, hash, scalar ref, array ref or hash ref. share will return the shared rvalue.

share will traverse up references exactly one level. share(\$a) is equivalent to share($a), while share(\\$a) is not.

A variable can also be marked as shared at compile time by using the shared attribute: my $var : shared.

If you want to share a newly created reference unfortunately you need to use &share([]) and &share({}) syntax due to problems with Perl's prototyping.

lock VARIABLE

lock places a lock on a variable until the lock goes out of scope. If the variable is locked by another thread, the lock call will block until it's available. lock is recursive, so multiple calls to lock are safe -- the variable will remain locked until the outermost lock on the variable goes out of scope.

If a container object, such as a hash or array, is locked, all the elements of that container are not locked. For example, if a thread does a lock @a, any other thread doing a lock($a[12]) won't block.

lock will traverse up references exactly one level. lock(\$a) is equivalent to lock($a), while lock(\\$a) is not.

Note that you cannot explicitly unlock a variable; you can only wait for the lock to go out of scope. If you need more fine-grained control, see Thread::Semaphore.

cond_wait VARIABLE

The cond_wait function takes a locked variable as a parameter, unlocks the variable, and blocks until another thread does a cond_signal or cond_broadcast for that same locked variable. The variable that cond_wait blocked on is relocked after the cond_wait is satisfied. If there are multiple threads cond_waiting on the same variable, all but one will reblock waiting to reacquire the lock on the variable. (So if you're only using cond_wait for synchronisation, give up the lock as soon as possible). The two actions of unlocking the variable and entering the blocked wait state are atomic, The two actions of exiting from the blocked wait state and relocking the variable are not.

It is important to note that the variable can be notified even if no thread cond_signal or cond_broadcast on the variable. It is therefore important to check the value of the variable and go back to waiting if the requirement is not fulfilled.

cond_signal VARIABLE

The cond_signal function takes a locked variable as a parameter and unblocks one thread that's cond_waiting on that variable. If more than one thread is blocked in a cond_wait on that variable, only one (and which one is indeterminate) will be unblocked.

If there are no threads blocked in a cond_wait on the variable, the signal is discarded. By always locking before signaling, you can (with care), avoid signaling before another thread has entered cond_wait().

cond_signal will normally generate a warning if you attempt to use it on an unlocked variable. On the rare occasions where doing this may be sensible, you can skip the warning with

{ no warnings 'threads'; cond_signal($foo) }

cond_broadcast VARIABLE

The cond_broadcast function works similarly to cond_signal. cond_broadcast, though, will unblock all the threads that are blocked in a cond_wait on the locked variable, rather than only one.

NOTES

threads::shared is designed to disable itself silently if threads are not available. If you want access to threads, you must use threads before you use threads::shared. threads will emit a warning if you use it after threads::shared.

BUGS

bless is not supported on shared references. In the current version, bless will only bless the thread local reference and the blessing will not propagate to the other threads. This is expected to be implemented in a future version of Perl.

Does not support splice on arrays!

Taking references to the elements of shared arrays and hashes does not autovivify the elements, and neither does slicing a shared array/hash over non-existent indices/keys autovivify the elements.

share() allows you to share $hashref-{key}> without giving any error message. But the $hashref-{key}> is not shared, causing the error "locking can only be used on shared values" to occur when you attempt to lock $hasref-{key}>.